The Demon's Curse
by burritolicious
Summary: Living an unextraordinary life was Cassandra Ross's main goal, but when one ordinary day at the beach spirals out of control, she's sucked into the life of a demigod-training, questing, and, worst of all, eating healthy. Rated T for future violence.


**Hey! Really quick A/N here. This story is slightly AU because of the lack of the events and characters of HoO. Unfortunately they just don't quite fit into this story.**

I was having a wonderful day. Then the ocean exploded.

I'd been blissfully oversleeping when my mom pounded on my door and proclaimed that I needed to "Get up! You're sleeping the day away!"

I rolled over and groaned but eventually succumbed to my mother's will.

"Cassie!" My mom called up the stairs. "Throw on a swimsuit! Let's go to the beach!"

I groaned and trudged to my dresser to get changed. I loved going to the beach, don't get me wrong, but I hated doing things right after waking up. Like school for instance.

Living in South Florida, I traveled to the beach quite often, though my untanned skin begged to differ. Many people mistook me for a tourist, which I hated, because there were a lot of them in Miami.

The beaches were my favorite destination, even if I would've liked for the crowds to thin out a bit. At least it wasn't wintertime and the beaches weren't as packed as they could've been.

I laid out a towel, brought out my book and read until I felt my skin start to boil. I raced to the water and dove in, my mom in tow. That's when I felt it. Something slick swiped past my leg. I'd never been afraid of sharks, even felt a sort of sympathy toward them, but I bolted from the water anyway, pulling my mom along with me.

My mom made it to land, but I was shot into the air before I could reach the shore. Water flew in all directions as I rocketed forward, landing face first into the sand. I scrambled into a sitting position, my nose throbbing painfully.

Two teenagers rushed about in the ocean. The water rose up in a geyser even taller than the serpent rising out of it. One of the teens seemed to be growing taller too, until it looked like he was standing on the ocean's surface.

I hastily crawled backwards, but fell on my bruised elbows before I could get far. My mom rushed to my side, dabbing at the blood that had started to trickle from my nose.

"Are you all right? What can I do to help?" My mom's worried tone saddened me. I was at a loss for words, dumbstruck by the spectacle in front of me.

In my peripheral vision, I noticed a different teenager running to me. She knelt at my side, pelting me with similar questions.

I looked from the girl's brilliant blue eyes to the gigantic sea serpent and back.

"You can see that?" The girl asked, brushing her spikey black hair from her eyes.

My mom shook her head. "I shouldn't've waited this long—" She was cut short by the screams of the two teens in the water. They were both sprinting toward us, an angry snake hot on their tails.

The girl dragged me to my feet, my mom rising with me.

"Run! Go!" The boy shouted, pointing with his sword to the road opposite the beach.

Wait a minute. Sword?

I had to look twice to make sure it was really there. But sure enough the blonde girl next to him held one too.

They switched courses when they hit the shore, grabbing the black-haired girl and high-tailing it along the beach.

"Wait!" My mom called, reaching out and snatching the girl's jean-jacket.

"Hey!" She shouted while being yanked back at my mother's hand. "Watch it, lady! We're in a hurry here!"

My mom had a frown on her face as she whispered something to the girl.

"Thalia!" The blonde shouted. "Come on!"

The girl—Thalia—looked away from my mom in shock. "How did you—?"

My mom turned to me. "Cassandra." She never used my full name unless it was something serious. "Go with them. Don't question it. Trust me and them."

Thalia looked between us, but she grabbed my arm and pulled me along behind her.

At first, I was confused and nervous. My mom, the queen of overprotection, was telling me to go off with three strangers? That's how I knew it was serious. I looked back at her in panic, but she was already running back toward our car.

I ran along behind Thalia, finding it hard to keep a solid footing in the sand. As we sprinted along South Beach, I found it odd how no one was reacting. If the serpent got too close to their towel, they'd just shoot it an irritated look and go back to their phone.

When I felt too out of breath to keep going much longer, the boy leading us took a sharp turn toward the ocean, stopping ankle-deep in the surf. He glanced at me, but, like Thalia, didn't question my tagging along.

I wondered what the heck we were doing. The sea monster was gaining on us and we were just standing here.

The blonde grabbed my hand and put it on the boy's shoulder. Before I had time to question what was going on, I felt I wind pick up, a sort of force dragging me toward a black hole in the water. We all fell through, and the weirdest sensation overcame me. I felt lightheaded as we rocketed through darkness. It was like traveling sixty-miles-an-hour through a cloud.

And suddenly, there we were. On the beach. No, a different beach. A wall of trees rose up where the beach ended on one side, the mouth of a river emptying on the other.

"What? Where? How, who, _why_?" I muttered in complete lack of understanding.

My companions started making their way up the beach, so I followed.

"This is Camp Half-Blood," the blonde announced.

That cleared absolutely nothing up.

As we were walking, we passed a bunch of really weird things—a rock wall spewing lava, an open-air pavilion with a dozen picnic tables, an amphitheater carved straight into the side of a hill.

"So who are you guys and what the heck just happened?" I was thoroughly confused. By all accounts, it just didn't make any sense.

"I'm Percy," said the black-haired guy, waving.

The blonde girl smiled, giving me an unsettling once-over. "Annabeth."

I ran my hand through my short, pixie-ish brown hair a few times, trying to contain its wildness.

"I'm—" Thalia started.

"Thalia," I finished. "Yeah. What an odd collection of names. Not bad, just… unusual."

"What about you? Who are you?"

"My name's Cassie. Or Cass. Or Cassandra. I don't really care," I told them. "Also you haven't answered my question. What just happened?"

"That's called sea traveling. At least, I can't think of a better name for it," Percy explained. "My father gave me the gift for my sixteenth birthday."

I nodded. "Uh huh, alright. Yeah, I'm going to pretend like I know what that means."

"I'll explain later," he said as passed around a lake and came up to a huge farmhouse.

Kids were everywhere—playing volleyball, canoeing, milling about. They smiled at the trio that brought me here, but sent me confused glances, making me nervous.

We stepped onto the large house's wraparound porch that would've made my mom jealous. A few people were playing a card game around a table.

Only one of them looked up when we approached. He was the first adult I'd seen at this place, but he didn't look very capable of managing a camp full of kids—he was seated in a wheelchair.

"Ah, you three are back from your vacation," He remarked then glanced back at me, "and I see you've brought someone with you."

I give a half-heartedly sarcastic smile.

"Annabeth," he continues, turning toward the blonde, "and Thalia, if you wish, forgo your noon lessons and give her a tour and explanation until lunch hour."

"Sure thing, Chiron."

They lead me away and back down the way we came, explaining the different places along the way. They also talk about western civilization and Greek myths, which seem like completely opposite topics if you ask me.

As we end up in the green between all the cabins, Annabeth asks about my parents, catching me off guard. "Why? You say my mom earlier."

"You've heard about demigods before, right?" Thalia asks.

"Yeah," I confirm, remembering those painstaking epics we'd had to read in school.

"Well, you're one of them."

I just stare blankly. "But I know both my parents."

The two girls share a look. "But you must be. Otherwise you wouldn't've been able to pass the beach."

"My mom and dad are split," I explain, "but they're both my biological parents."

A horse passes my to my right, heading toward the dining pavilion I'd seen earlier. But no, wait, not just a horse.

"What the…" Nothing here makes any sense.

"Oh yeah, and Chiron is centaur," Annabeth remembered. "Forgot to mention that."

He pulled up alongside us, and I had to make sure to keep from gaping at him.

"How're you all getting along?" He asked us.

"Um, actually, we sort of have a predicament." Annabeth then explained my situation with me occasionally filling in left out information.

"Hmm," Chiron said thoughtfully. "I have a hunch. It's very rare but definitely possible." He looked straight at me. "I believe that you _are_ a demigod, but in a different way. If a demigod falls in love with a human, their child would be twenty-five percent godly instead of fifty. If _two_ demigods have a child, that child inherits twenty-five percent of their godly nature from their mother and twenty-five percent from their father, still leaving them with fifty. You're a legacy, and you've been prophesized to arrive for a long time."

**Thank you for reading! I hope you like it. Please favorite and follow! Also please review or PM me if you have and questions, comments, praise, or constructive criticism. Thanks once again!**


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